Chief Engineer

Job Summary

General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) is a supplier of advanced electromagnetic systems, related power equipment and other high technology products for a variety of government and commercial applications. These include products such as the design and fabrication of linear motors, superconducting and conventional rotating motors, power inverters, high-energy capacitors, radiation monitoring systems, high-voltage direct current power distribution systems, and numerous other products.

We have an exciting opportunity in our Aerospace Systems Engineering directorate for a full-time Chief Engineer to lead the design and development of one or more new weapon systems such as cruise missiles, air defense missiles, dispensing submunitions, gun-launched projectiles, and hypersonic glide weapons. The successful candidate will provide technical expertise to multi-disciplinary teams that may be geographically distributed between Huntsville, AL, Centennial, CO, Fredericksburg, VA, Oxford, MS, and San Diego, CA. The work location for this position is in Huntsville, AL at our office in Cummings Research Park.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Provide weapon systems expertise to guide systems engineering; design engineering (electrical, mechanical, flight software, RF, EO/IR, warhead/lethality); guidance, navigation and control; modeling and simulation; and Assembly, Integration and Test (AIT) efforts for the development of missile/weapon system prototypes.
• Collaborate daily with GA and customer engineering and program management teams
• Collaborate with subcontractor teams to guide and monitor their progress during the weapon system development effort
• Elicit stakeholder needs from government and industry customers and define Concept of Operations and System Architecture to meet those needs
• Collaborate with Lead Systems Engineer to define systems engineering approach to be used for the weapon system development
• With the assistance of a master scheduler and in coordination with subsystem leads, develop Integrated Milestone Schedules (IMS) to complete the weapon system program scope of work, milestones and deliverables within the allocated budget and timeline
• Review and refine system, subsystem, and component level requirements for hardware and software configuration items
• Review and refine verification cross-reference matrices, Master Test Plan, acceptance criteria, and test objectives
• Review and refine mechanical, electrical, and logical Interface Control Documents (ICDs) for weapon system applications
• Define system and subsystem level trade studies to be completed to refine the weapon system design; review trade study results and make informed technical design decisions based on trade study and analysis results
• Lead weekly weapon system level engineering working groups to capture status of design, development, integration and testing activities; resolve complex technical problems facing the engineering team; and ensure risks are being mitigated in accordance with program risk and opportunity management plans
• Support the planning, development and execution of major program technical reviews including System Requirements Reviews, System Functional Reviews, Preliminary Design Reviews, Critical Design Reviews, Integration Readiness Reviews, Test Readiness Reviews, and Pre-Ship Readiness Reviews to include reviewing and tailoring entrance and exit criteria; reviewing objective evidence; and developing, reviewing, and presenting briefing materials.
• Lead definition of Key Performance Parameters, Technical Performance Metrics and other similar technical measures of health/progress for weapon system projects
• Support definition of failure modes, effects and criticality for weapon systems, subsystems, and components
• Support development and review of weapon system design and development content for proposals, Request For Information (RFI) responses, and other technical white papers
• Demonstrate strong communication skills with and between customers, team members, task leads, functional managers, and program management to facilitate rapid resolution of technical and program issues
• Serve as the technical lead on one or more development projects
• Make technical presentations during working groups and peer reviews, or to senior management or customers, as required
• Mentor less experienced engineers in weapon system design best practices; socialize and ingrain sound engineering processes into the local engineering team culture and project execution
• Perform other duties as required.

We recognize and appreciate the value and contributions of individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences and welcome all qualified individuals to apply.

Job Qualifications

• Typically requires a bachelors degree, masters degree or PhD in engineering or a related technical discipline from an accredited institution and progressive engineering experience as follows; twelve or more years of experience with a bachelors degree, ten or more years of experience with a masters degree, or seven or more years with a PhD. May substitute equivalent engineering experience in lieu of education.
• A thorough and broad understanding of chief engineer roles and responsibilities and the demonstrated ability to apply that knowledge effectively to the development of new weapon systems is required.
• Deep understanding of tactical guided missiles, projectiles, or hypersonic vehicles and their subsystems and the engineering disciplines, tools, and methods used in their design and development is required.
• The ability and desire to teach and mentor other engineers is required.
• Experience developing technical inputs and cost estimates for proposals, white papers, and requests for information (RFIs) is highly desired
• Success in this position requires consistent application of the following key abilities:
  • Demonstration of a positive attitude, strong initiative and work ethic, and ability to multi-task
  • Achieving good results and delivering solid products with minimum time expenditure
  • Exceptional interpersonal, communication, computer, and presentation skills
  • Able to collaborate as part of a team, as well as accomplish tasks independently with minimal direct supervision
  • Rapid and effective problem solving
• Able to work extended hours as required
• Travel expectation: <25%
• Must possess active Department of War (DoW) Secret security clearance (or equivalent Department of Energy security clearance) with ability to obtain Top Secret with Secret Compartmented Information (SCI) access, as required.